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Turning my experiment into a bug-fairy BJD?

Oct 3, 2010

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    1. EDIT: Thank you everyone for the critiques! She now has a more current updated thread in the WIP section:

      That thread is here: My little bug-doll thing.

      /end of edit
      --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


      I've been working on this tiny and I'm to the point where I don't know how I feel about her anymore, I'm caught in a love/hate cycle, she is kind of cute (I think) but so "off" and she really bothers me in her current state.

      I started her on a whim, no plan, no concept, just to practice; and as she started taking form, ideas started appearing and she became a bug fairy thing, and I started caring about how she looks. So now I'm trying to get this doll that was thrown together in the beginning stages to come together okay-looking in the end, wondering if I shouldn't just use my energy in starting a different, new doll, actually planned from the beginning...

      Anyway, I test strung her as she is to see how her proportions were doing (I have been sculpting her in parts) and gah! is she wierd... I mean, I had purposely given her the buggy eyes and long legs but her torso is much smaller than I thought (which I can live with) and her shoulders are too big and she needs a longer neck (which I can fix)...

      I threw her in Photoshop to try to fix her on paper (er, on screen) first, in an effort to make up my mind on if I should keep working on her or not... Here she is in all her current wierdness:

      [​IMG]

      And this is what I could come up with (probably not what her actual hair and face-up will look like)... Edits: lengthened the neck, made shoulders a bit smaller, bulked up her head, gave her more insect features to make her concept more obvious, gave her ears... and random faceup, hair and helmet to help me visualise her finished better. No idea how I'd attach the wings or sculpt those ultra-fine antenna :dead

      [​IMG]

      To get to the above point I would have to go for something like this in her sculpt:

      [​IMG]

      I am going to sit on this for a few days before I start sculpting her again, in the meantime, does anyone see anything else I could fix or do to make her look better?

      Here is a pic with her back and side(ish) views for reference:

      [​IMG]

      I'm definately going for a styalized, and cute, and bug-like fairy critter look.

      Please be honest in opinions, critiques, etc... XD
       
      #1 Jipsy, Oct 3, 2010
      Last edited by a moderator: Jan 11, 2011
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    2. I think...I detect some problems with her posture? (She seems to be hunched over on top and hip-tilted at the bottom) That the thighs seems to be too forward in the hips will pbb not be a problem if you add more mass to her butt (in the conical bug body shape) But I think her upper chest may need to tilt less forward in a neutral pose?

      Also, since the body is so slim, you may want to consider bringing down the thickness of the arms a bit (arms usually are a bit thinner than legs, and even thinner compared to the torso)
       
      #2 penguu, Oct 3, 2010
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    3. Thank you Penguu. Yeah, now that you mention her posture I realize I should have taken her pictures in a more normal (neutral) pose, would be easier to judge, sorry about that. She does seem hunched over...

      I'm adding her posture and hips to my to-fix list (will bring those legs back into her torso, too, I think), I'll try to thin her arms also but they will still be kinda thick in the end because the stringing channels are about as small as they can be for my elastic to fit, but hopefully I can get the arms a bit thinner.
       
      #3 Jipsy, Oct 3, 2010
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    4. I'm kind of thinking of tinkerbell and lillymon from digimon but the fairy look usually has almond eyes, so I'd make her eyes stick up like a cat instead of down like puppy eyes.

      Also that bug fairy looks tends to have a very small mouth (this would make it cuter also), so I'd reduce the width of the lips. Same for the nose (this would make it more feminine, it's feeling kind of nongender, I can imagine it being a male's head at the same time). They have short but skinny sharp noses. For my preference, I'd lower the nose just by a bit because it almost has the monkey or grandma-like upper mouth. But it's actually fine.

      For cuteness, add some more mass to the forehead.
       
      #4 sammyooba, Oct 3, 2010
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    5. the width of the lips is less a problem for me than the fact that it's smiling, but the lips are not stretched? XD;

      When you smile, the center of the lips should stretch a bit <- for the smile to look sincere XD
       
      #5 penguu, Oct 4, 2010
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    6. Thank you both for your critiques!

      I think those are all very good comments about her face, it's helping me really think about what exactly I want to do... I do want her to be cute, but when I said fairy I wasn't thinking of the dainty tinkerbell type, I was thinking of the mischevious, more folklore/brian froud type.

      So the almond eyes are an excellent point and I will definately change that, and probably tone down her nose, but I actually was liking her lips. I wasn't thinking of it as a real smile, but a certain expression I don't know what to call it... when you think something is a little funny but only the corners of your mouth go up and your lips point a tiny bit out? sorts like this smily :} Maybe it will look better when I change the rest of her face, but any ideas on how to give her a :} or mischevious mouth would be welcome. :uhhuh
       
      #6 Jipsy, Oct 4, 2010
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    7. :} I think the lips look mischievous enough. You can make that more apparent when she gets a face up. Geisha style lipstick. *•*
      Antennae options:
      1. insulated wire (that is painted on with desired colors) and stuck on her
      2. the ones on the attachment. I don't know what they are called exactly.
      3. You sculpt over wire and cast them somehow...

      How small is she?
       

      Attached Files:

      #7 joankagami, Oct 5, 2010
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    8. The geisha style lipstick might work :}

      She is about 9.5 cm (3.75 in) tall.

      At that size, if I make her antenna as thin as in the photoshop edit, they would be just a little thicker than some thick embroidery thread, that's why I was worrying.

      I've been thinking I'm going to try making an armature for the antenna out of some real thin copper wire, but if that's still to easy to break I might change her antenna style to something shorter and thicker.
      Oh I just remembered some of the other brands of polymer clay like cernit and kato are sorta flexible when baked, that might work too!
       
      #8 Jipsy, Oct 5, 2010
      Last edited by a moderator: Oct 5, 2010
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    9. I know what your talking about

      That cunning look, a smirk

      http://konachan.com/post/show?md5=19ac165ef15bf5dcd612c9297c5f8040

      Like that

      For that smile, you don't need a wide mouth. A smile is determined by whether the ends of your lips are pointed up or not. An exaggerated cunning look (yeah i like majored in smirks because I do it all the time) is actually pretty short. I squeeze my lips together and force the ends up. So it's not about how long the lips are.

      So I would still make the width of those lips shorter. Not only for that reason, but a shorter lip is also cuter than a wide lip.
       
      #9 sammyooba, Oct 5, 2010
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    10. I love the face! Her nose is fantastic and gives her this mischevious, impish look.
      As for the advice: I'd personally work on her torso some more. It could be a bit longer and also wider (especially around the shoulders), or you could make her shoulderjoint slimmer. I think those joints are the main reason your little bug-fairy has this stiff pose right now. The shoulders don't fit.

      But I like what you did in photoshop and it would be great if you could realize that!
       
      #10 Silk, Oct 5, 2010
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    11. Maybe you could just stick in small feathers... turn her into a moth?
       
      #11 joankagami, Oct 6, 2010
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    12. the forehead and the temporal area definately need a bit of bulking up. but i think that she is really cute. i like the insect idea.
       
      #12 eternal-song, Jan 10, 2011
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    13. Oh! I had forgotten to update this thread. Thank you everyone for the critiques!

      I made her a thread in the WIP section, and I am posting the rest of her progress there.

      The thread is here: My little bug-doll thing.
       
      #13 Jipsy, Jan 11, 2011
      Last edited by a moderator: Jan 11, 2011
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